Sparkling new Nat King Cole collection celebrates the classic crooner with a heaping helping of his most swinging performances, rare unreleased tracks and a pair of duets with Dean Martin.
Decades since his heyday, Nat King Cole remains one of popular music's most beloved and influential voices, as well as an iconic pop-culture presence whose smooth, confident persona continues to endear him to new generations of fans.
The swinging side of Cole's massive musical legacy takes the spotlight on The Extraordinary Nat King Cole, a compelling new collection that demonstrates the legendary artist's confident musical mastery with such icons as “L-O-V-E,” “Almost Like Being In Love,” as well as several soon to be classic unreleased tracks, “The Magic Window,” “Little Fingers,” and the alternate take of “Sleeping Beauty.” These tracks were found in amazing condition and unearthed recently for this release. The set also features a pair of historic duets with Nat's Capitol labelmate and fellow icon of cool Dean Martin, along with the previously unreleased number “You're Wrong All Wrong.”
Originally lost and unissued, the rare tracks were finally rediscovered by Alex Luke, former EVP of A&R at Capitol Records. Luke, a big Nat King Cole fan, spent two years working tirelessly in the Capitol vaults attempting to physically locate missing master tapes, searching every variation of Nat Cole's name, combing through photos, union records, paperwork and tapes. It began as an effort to solve the mystery of a specific week-long lost Cole session from Chicago. That search uncovered the tracks here.
The standard single-disc edition contains 22 classic Cole performances, while the two-CD Deluxe edition adds 14 rare and/or previously unreleased tracks, including four never-before-heard vintage songs and previously unissued alternate takes of the Cole standards “Straighten Up And Fly Right,” “Unforgettable,” “Mona Lisa,” “The Christmas Song,” and “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons” taken from the Nat King Cole Story sessions. Also featured are “Ain't She Sweet” and “What to Do,” recorded in 1954, both of which find Cole trading vocals with his daughters Carole and Natalie (whose cross-generational 1991 duet version of “Unforgettable” helped to introduce her father to a new generation of listeners).